Names
by TheGhostisReal
Summary: What you see is what I choose to show you. Who I am is another matter entirely. Which one is the one you want? Probably slash, haven't decided yet. Attention is a great motivator, I think. Right now, 'm' for multiple f-bombs.
1. Chapter 1

Dear Internet: This may have a lot of canonical errors. This may ruin canon characters, or change their backstory a little. Don't get your panties in a bunch, you'll get nothing from flaming me. I do, however, like nice little, polite notes letting me know if I do something good or bad. You've been warned, at some point in the future this will likely involve dudes getting it on.

On with the show.

It was hard to keep track of his names, he tended to respond to at least two, and to think of himself without the importance of one. Yoko called him "Alucard" in private, "Genya Arikado" to outsiders, to Soma. His true name he kept to himself, he had never told anyone, and no one still living knew. The name had never really seemed right, coming off the lips of others.

He had wanted to share it, once, so long ago, beautiful Maria. If she had followed, he would have given it to her, shared his name and his life, who he was and who he had been. But she had left him to his own mind, to his hiding, likely for the best. A human would have drawn things near that would have him abuse his power, fulfill his bloodline and his potential. At least this way Maria had been protected, from anything besides the passage of time. Agelessness was a punishment, he had discovered. Every time he had awoken, he was forced to know how many years, decades, then centuries it had been since she had died. Since he had last wanted to share any of his life with anyone.

Yoko had urged him to stay away from the castle this time. She couldn't hear the voices calling him to it, the threats to Soma, the power it had gained from that other world. They wanted Soma, this time, so sure that he was going to give his body over to the power that he carried the ability to wield. Yoko could not keep him from the castle, only follow and hope to save one of them. At least he knew she would save Soma, he was the one that needed the help more, he hadn't lived in this castle, ever changing though it was, some things were always there. He knew this place, he knew some of the inhabitants, though some had not passed the test of time.

Humans stood out in this place by their scent alone. Yoko could disguise it, but Soma was too easy to track. The boy was fending off creatures that the castle birthed, the monsters flourished in a place as cursed as this was, and more would come, more and more trying to overtake the boy and steal him away to resurrect their master. He reached for a sword only to remind himself he had none, he couldn't take his real form around Soma. The boy likely didn't even know that he could fight. A monster's rusted sword clattered to his feet, and he grabbed it, instinct, to fend off the creatures until they got some kind of idea what was going on and ran. The battle crept him closer and closer to Soma, he could see the determination in the boy's face- he was convinced that this was right, what he had to be doing. He had to admire the boy for that.

Finally, they stopped coming, the room was empty. They were barely inside, a long hallway stretched out leading into the castle proper. Soma looked up at him, his eyes wide.

"Arikado," He was perplexed, "what're you doing here?"

"Helping." He tried to keep his words short.

"Well, thanks, I guess."

He nodded, looking around the boy rather than at him directly. He could rarely meet people's eyes, they would start to see, start to get an idea that he was not entirely like them, not entirely human. Besides, Soma was beautiful, something he had failed to notice before. People had changed, even in the eras he had seen, people had changed, gender lines blurred, he realized that it wasn't that big a deal to him if it was a boy or a girl. But this was a recent development, the last time he had been working in the real world he could have been hanged for finding a boy, even one so effeminate as Soma, beautiful.

"Are you going to come with me this time?"

"I suppose, if you would like for me to."

"I would." Soma smiled for him.

They explored the halls together. As much as the castle changed with every incarnation, so much of it stayed the same. He had grown up in this place, after his mother had been killed, wandering these halls and trying to avoid the things that served his father. Sometimes he would see a room and know just where to hide, a secret wall or floor panels that were loosed. Soma didn't know these things, and he didn't want him to. He kept to himself, a great deal of the time, kept secrets.

"I didn't know you could fight, Arikado."

"I've never had to."

"But still. Its useful."

"It can be." He wiped the blade he had stolen from a monster on a long coat, and looked at Soma. He was touching up his own wounds, catching his breath. The room seemed empty, it was cold, hardly lit at all, even more so than the rest of the castle. He could see Soma's breath. Death was near.


	2. Chapter 2

Dear Internet: More of the same.

"Soma you need to get back."

"Arikado?"

"Get back!" Black spread across the wall, colder and colder, oppressive. Soma backed up, towards the door, not knowing it wouldn't open to him. Death himself pooled down from the ceiling. His cloak wasn't so much black as it was absent. There was simply nothing there. After all these years he was immune to it, but he had heard, years and years ago, from Richter, that you could see suffering in that blackness.

He stood his ground against Death, floated down to watch him. They had not seen each other in two hundred years, more. But Death knew him. He didn't tremble- he couldn't. He merely held the sword to his side, ready to fight if he needed to.

When Death spoke- he didn't speak. You simply knew that Death had spoken.

"Alucard," he drew the name out so long, "you have returned to us."

He was young again and hoped for glory. Maria, he hoped to save Maria and he hoped to make good for his mother and he hoped that his one man, one creature siege against his father would make some kind of a difference he might be able to stop this thing, resurrection his father brought upon the world.

It was now and he knew he was naïve. He wanted to help Soma, he wanted to get this child out of here, to save him from the potential he had for this power, for this destruction. He wanted to save this child, beautiful soft and white.

"Take me, let him go."

"I cannot do that, we need him, we need him for your father." Again, he didn't hear Death, but he knew Death had spoken, what he said and what he meant, and he knew that Soma could hear it as well.

"Let him go. Take me, you know I can take the power."

"But Alucard, we like the boy. We want him, for ourselves."

He took his heavy blade, the one he stole from the Undead warrior, and lashed out hard at Death. He wanted to save the boy, he wanted to protect this child from the life that he had led in this castle, trained to take his father's power, his mind and his will. Made to be willing to sacrifice himself to continue this legacy that his father had created, the only reason he had borne a son in his line. Shadows tore away from Death's cloak crept up his sword and to his arm, changing his form, taking away his disguise and showing Soma his real body, silver white blond hair whipped across his face, laced by Death's Shadow, he shed the restraints he had put on himself to play human and followed Death into the air with his heavy, dull sword. Death was not a real entity, a stolen steel sword would do nothing but keep him away from Soma. The shadows working around his body stripped him of his power, his life force, he could no longer keep himself in the air, hanging from lights and the decorative hangings, ledges. He needed to get to his rooms, protected as they were by the power he had accumulated, that his enemies had encouraged so his father could use it. He kept his weapons in his chambers, under wraps, under his protection to use under the worst of circumstances. And if Death was there, if Death was gathering power for his father, then the worst would be upon them.

"You wear my patience thin, Alucard. We will be back for you, and for the boy." Death crept back to the ceiling, his cloak becoming one with the stones, Death becoming one with the shadows, the palace itself, he knew they had to get to his chambers, Death would be able to find them anywhere else in this castle.

"Soma we must leave."

"What are you?"

"It matters not. We must leave this place now."

"I'm not going anywhere with you!"

"Then you are dead. Come with me, Soma Cruz."

"Get the hell away from me!"

"I do not want to see the Dark Lord's power come back. You will come with me, or Death will take you and use your body to bring him back to this world."

"Fine. But you're telling me what the fuck is going on here."

"This is a fair trade."

"Yeah I figured as much. Now lets get out this place before whatever that was comes back."

"That," he took a deep breath, "was Death."

"No shit." Soma looked incredulous.

"Come. We're leaving."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Soma backed away from him, and he was suddenly very aware of his appearance to the human boy. Too pale, too much white, too much of him was inhuman, it was hard even to disguise as his other self, the human him.

"You do not know, but what choice do you have?"


	3. Chapter 3

Dear Internet: This one's long.

Soma sighed, nodded. His eyes flickered over the walls, the sword in his hand, anywhere but at the man standing in the doorway. He could tell the boy was frightened- was there anything in this castle that wasn't a monster?- But he said nothing of it, perhaps to placate the creature he thought he had known by another name.

He led them down the outer wall of the castle and through doors with seals and spells to keep anyone out. He knew all the seals, all the charms and the spells and locks, he had placed them there. No one could see in, even Death was blocked from these two rooms. They were much the same as he had left them, some years ago, with the style of the times, not these. He watched Soma peer around the rooms, touching weapons and furniture that had been stored there over the years. He watched the boy wander the rooms, in and out of a doorway with no proper door. He stopped in front of a long black coffin, stared at it.

"Who's in it?"

"No one."

"Is it… For?"

"I do require sleep occasionally."

"You sleep in that?" Soma took a step back from him, shocked and a little bit scared. He couldn't blame the boy.

He had no defenses anymore. "I find it comforting."

"Comforting can suck my balls. That's a fucking coffin." Soma went to the door, paused, as if considering the implications of opening. He fell back to the door, and slid to the ground, his head in his hands, "what did I do to deserve this" hardly a murmur he only picked up e ledHewith preternatural hearing. He pretended he hadn't heard. He sorted a chest full of things more powerful than even he knew how to touch. He paid no mind to Soma, still against the door, his head cradled in his hands, shoulders shaking so slightly, trying not to show. But as much as he wanted to give the man comfort, he knew that from him would only make it worse. He was the subject of the boy's strife, or at least a large part of it. But how would he himself have reacted, to find himself in a situation so impossible to define, so utterly unreal, and to know that his only ally was as much a monster as anything else they would find in that castle. He rested himself, wrapped in his cloak, in a chair, let his eyes rest, his body relax. He felt shifting in the room, let his awareness pan out, to find the movement, Soma standing, pulling his cloak closer around himself, finally seeing the room finally safe. He picked up weapons strewn across the floor, he heard the swish of blades tested, curses and magic thrown with each swing. He didn't open his eyes, didn't look at Soma, didn't let him know he was awake. He pulled his knees to his chest, let his head fall to them, his shoulders slumped and mind drifted off, for some reason still focused on her.

_"Alucard? Is that your real name?"_

_ "As real as anything else I suppose."_

_ "Then I don't have the right to know, do I?"_

_ "Its not that, Maria, I-" He reached out to touch her, his fingers brushed her hand, soft, warm, human. She pulled her hand away, turned away from him._

_ "Goodbye Alucard, if I may even call you that."_

He shook himself awake. He didn't want to remember her like that, but her face, the distrust, the fear, the same as Soma's. The boy had stopped where he stood, pale eyes flickering over his face, a broadsword in his hand, turned, at the ready. His brow furrowed, there was something of that power in him, something telling that he could destroy him if he needed. He wondered, vaguely, if his father's servants had found a way to infiltrate these rooms, taking Soma's body and turning him to an enemy. He stood, slowly, the click of boot heels on stone floor painfully loud. Soma took a step back, his eyes widened, pale eyes, the white angel a stark contrast to this place, always dark, always night, the better to allow in demons averse to the day. To make Soma stand out. Proof he had not been taken in by this place. Or that the place had not taken him. That in itself was a relief, of sorts, but he had yet to find a way to make Soma trust him, the fear, readying his weapon, proved that. If that was what he needed, Soma could kill him. He wouldn't fight it. Death may be a welcome relief to what immortality had become. But it could also be worse, he knew there were powers in this place that could take his body, reanimate it, trap his soul, his essence, aware but incapable of controlling what they did with his body. He held out his hands, showed he carried no weapon, hanging at his side was a sword he wouldn't touch. He undid the knot that held the weapon to his belt, it clattered to his feet on the stone, harsh and ringing. Soma jumped backwards, shook his head, as though coming out of a trance. He eyed him, up and down, assessing.

"So do you sleep in a chair or a coffin?"

"I did not intend to sleep."

Soma sighed, sheathed the broadsword across his back, "I'm taking this with me."

"As it suits you."

"You comin' with?"

"If you'll have me."

"As a meat shield. I think you can take a few more hits than me from those things." Soma was filling a small bag with whatever equipment he could carry on him. And he distracted himself from Soma's preparations by finding his old coat, surprisingly well kept, the castle never aged, after all, pulling it over his suit, comforted by the old fashioned filigree and golden threading, he wrapped himself in it and felt another place entirely, no need to hide behind the persona of Genya Arikado. He heard the door creak open, and opened his eyes to Soma, to the darkness outside of his sanctuary, swept past Soma and into the horde of creatures set to destroy them both. With a sword that suited him better, his attacks were graceful, he dodged sickly reanimated skeletons effortlessly, taking them down with a single swing of his sword, their bones, thinly held together by rotting tendons, clattered to the ground, whatever force brought them back moved on already to something more powerful. Soma waved his huge broadsword about like a madman, mowing down three, sometimes four of the creatures at a time, none of the grace he imbued the art of fighting with, but equal effectiveness. He was not unimpressed with the boy's growth over the now three times he had seen him in this castle. He remembered him scared and angry the first time, mistrusting, almost ready to be come the Dark Lord as he was meant to. And with that brought memories of Julius, passed away not even a year ago, leaving no Belmont to take up the whip and storm the castle. Leaving him to once again take up their mantle, to try and destroy his father, or the creature he had become.


	4. Chapter 4

Soma was growing tired. He could read it in his posture, in his halfhearted swings at enemies, each room ore full of creatures than the last. He could only protect Soma for so long. His first human contact in too long was to grab Soma's arm and pull him back into an alcove detached from the swarm of creatures. Soma fell back into him. He caught the boy in both arms, held on perhaps a moment too long. Soma jerked away, to collapse against a wall, holding onto himself instead. And he did not pity himself the rejection, to watch Soma was enough. He pulled a small bottle out of his coat, swallowed its contents in one fell swoop, grimaced.

"The same potions have always been in this castle, you would have thought they would do something about its flavor."

"Nah. Monsters don' want 'em, these guys've got no reason to make life easier on humans. I tried."

"Did you?"

"Yup." Soma sighed, pulled out a package of chewing gum. He offered it to the other man. "Do they work on you?"

"Yes." He did not take the offering, nor did he sit. He paced, and wrapped his arms around himself and tried not to look at Soma. Soma, who had fallen asleep in a corner buried in his coat, weapon not far from hand. How he could sleep in this place was beyond him. But he settled himself beside Soma and moved his hair away from his face and watched him sleep. Of himself, he found no rest in this place, too painfully aware of what awaited them on the other side, outside the door, every other room in the castle. And still he could feel Death calling them, longing now for them both, unable to enter this room. He found himself sitting close to Soma, to feel his humanity, something increasingly difficult to find in himself. He wondered some days if it was still there at all. But he looked over to Soma and the longing he knew, the longing to be as pure and human as he was, had he lived as a human he would never had lived to see this, this mockery of a power that once he feared above all else. But he never would have lived to see Soma. And that may be worth it, Soma rolled over in his sleep, unwittingly, into his lap. He ran one hand over Soma's shoulder, gently, not to wake him. He let Soma sleep where he lay, and thought not much of it, again, of Maria, who once slept there, in the castle the same way. Why he associated Soma and his lost love so well he didn't want to comprehend, or to think on at all. These kinds of things were unreal to him, not accepted and not to be desired. Soma's deep breath cooled over his body, strangely longed for each breath. He shifted, hand landed on the leg of his suit, but he was far away already. Staring out the window, watching wind blow the clouds by, brushed a gloved hand through Soma's hair. He let his mind wander anywhere but where he sat, tried to take it to a warmer place, happier time, days with Maria, but thoughts of her led to her leaving, and back to the cold, dead place he took the world of humans to be. Never let Soma Cruz change his mind of the matter.

His sleep was dreamless.

His eyes opened to Soma digging through his bag, throwing potions and sidearms to the side in search of something he was sure he had brought with him. His white coat spread out across the floor, still young face knitted into concentration. Muscles protested the uncomfortable position in which he had slept as soon as he tried to rise, but the movement was still fluid, the heavy material of his old coat sweeping against the floor. Soma didn't look up at him.

"What are you?"

"What is it you mean by that?"

"What are you, is what I mean."

"I am half-blood."

"And whatever that means."

"Half my blood is from a being of the night."

"Right, and Death was talking about your old man. Two and two makes you Dracula's son."

"There is truth to that."

"Why help us, then? I mean, this probably isn't the first time you've helped the other team, why? Inheriting this castle looks like a pretty sweet deal."

"You turned it down."

"Did you grow up here?"

"Part of my life."

"Guess that explains how you know where to hide." Soma's hands came out of the bag with a small charm, Calligraphy in perfect Japanese on the front. The younger threw it around his neck, settled some.

"Mina gave this to me. Don't know how many times its helped clear my head."

"The pair of you are romantically involved?"

"No. Never will be. She's like a sister."

"You seem closer."

"Hey, how old are you?"

"You'd rather not know the answer to that question." A wry smile, more comfortable now around the boy, comfortable enough to tease. He checked the door, turned to Soma. "Hiding here is doing no one any good. We shall make our way up, find out who is behind all this."


	5. Chapter 5

Dear Internet: Yes, I write Soma with an immature streak. He's perfectly capable of acting like a grown-up, just chooses not to.

"Suit yourself. I'm perfectly happy to hide here and make you do all the work, you know these monsters pretty good."

"I recommend against it. Death knows you're in the castle."

"Yeah I'm coming with you. Meat shield, remember?"

"Yes, Soma, I remember."

They walked through the library, though the librarian had died long ago, denied his immortality for helping him when Maria was in the castle. But he needed a book, hidden away here, a spellbook, for hiding them both from Death, for showing the true form of the castle, a book he had hidden for years upon years under traps and guises. Every unholy creature that happened upon them, and there were many, were dispatched with little effort. Soma had grown powerful, even for this place. The monsters had trained him well to inherit their master's power. As well as they had trained him, years and years ago, and he had been naïve enough to believe that they had been doing right, and that one day the castle would have been his. Whispers told him it still could be.

"Soma, Genya, I didn't take you for bookish types." Yoko was happy to find them, her little schoolgirl crush on him had never dissipated. She sat at a long table, one leg crossed over the other and a dozen books opened around her. She had taken these few years gracefully, looked as though she had taken none at all. But her line took age well, he knew and she was not allowed to know why.

"Yoko, wow, party time I guess."

"You made it quite a way into the castle, Miss Belnades, you've become strong."

"Coming from Genya that means something. But why the reversion? I thought you were done with the old look."

"Death has found us here."

"He took the illusion away, then?"

"Yes."

"Genya, I'm sorry." Her hand grazed against his for a moment before turning another page. "What does Soma know?"

"Quite a bit."

"What exactly?"

"He confronted Death, knows my lineage, knows Death is bringing back the Dark Lord." He sunk into the chair beside her. "More than you knew the first time we met, as I recall."

"I think the first time we met I tried to ask you out." Yoko laughed. "You said Death is trying to bring him back?"

"He implied such." He nodded, looked to Soma in the corner examining the shelf intently. "He said 'we need him' as though Death was mastering this."

"Anyone else realize this bookshelf moves?" Soma was pushing the shelf, it spun.

"Soma, I'll have you know if you move that any further a sentient and irritable blade will have it's way with you."

"Ew?"

"Genya," Yoko interjected, "turns of phrase mean different things in some centuries than others."

"May I ask, then, what I just said?"

"You implied the familiar would sexually violate him." Yoko laughed, "but would it trouble you to call if off?"

"No, I actually needed that room."

"So you booby trap your room with swords?" Soma interjected.

"Yes?" The sword surrounded him, faded into nothing, merely a card he slipped into his pocket. The room was dark and musty from unuse, large, almost impossible to see in. But he could see, read every detail. He knew the humans would need light. A simple spell, a five hundred year old lantern sprang to life, illuminating the books and potions.

"This room is safe."

Soma stretched out in a chair. "Good. I'm going to rest while you two do the smart things."

"No you're not." Interjected, and he threw a book in Soma's direction. Instinctively, he caught it, a book on monsters. "Learn their weaknesses and use it to your advantage."

Soma grumbled. "Fine, fine, not pissing off the monster demon vampire half thing." He let the book fall loud open on the table and laid on his arms, eyes skimming over the pages with little interest.

Silence settled into the room comfortably, penetrated by the occasional sounds of human living. His preternatural hearing picked up every rustle of paper, every sigh, loud breath, Soma's occasional commentary he thought no one could hear. For every hope he had in the boy, he felt nothing but sympathy- there was no way Soma could have known this was his destiny when he was young. He wondered what Soma's dreams had been before he knew. What he had wanted to be when he found himself an adult. There had been doubt for a time that Soma would grow even to be an adult. He wondered sometimes if Soma was immortal, or as immortal as he was. Thinking on it, he wasn't sure how long he would live. There were not many of his kind, less who would talk to him. In most, if not all circles, a half-breed would be considered an abomination. He had stopped aging at twenty-four, or somewhere in the indeterminate period of middle twenties, there had been no definable stop, just the realization that his natural form was no longer appearing to age. He had never seen a creature like Soma before, so on his aging, or his life he could say nothing. The boy had terrifying amounts of untapped potential, yet also the mind of a nineteen year-old boy.

"Wait, so, does you being Dracula's kid make me your dad?"


	6. Chapter 6

Dear Internet: You ask and I deliver.

"Wait, so, does you being Dracula's kid make me your dad?"

He waited for Soma's laugh to pass. "No. You merely have the potentiality to take on his spirit and abilities. I suggest not doing so."

"That's kind of boring."

"You asked."

"Can I ask you something else?" Soma laid his head on his arms and watched him from across the long table.

He nodded.

"What was it like when you were little?"

"Do you mean here?"

"Yeah. I've never seen any kids around here, were you the only one? Do they hide them? Do the monsters make good parents? I mean, this is a fuckin' weird place to have a kid."

"I was ten when I came here, there were no other children, but I was almost worshipped. My father did what he could to give me a happy childhood, and more than not it worked. I can't count the times I got lost in this place, and the monsters had to get me out," a strange sort of smile crossed his face, "I suppose I didn't know any better than to be happy."

"No one wanted to kill you or anything?"

"They only hurt those who wish to destroy their way of living, they are like humans that way."

"I guess that makes sense." Soma shifted his seat so he was closer to the half-breed. "What was your mother?"

He almost laughed. "Mortal? She was a healer when she was alive."

"Did she love him?"

"Very much. One of the last things she every spoke was love of him."

"I'm sorry."

"You've nothing to be sorry for, Soma."

"It's weird. I thought you had no feelings. I actually made fun of you, to Mina, 'bout how serious you were."

"I take no offense to that." He tore a piece of parchment paper from his book and folded it into a suit pocket. "Come now, we should be moving on."

Yoko settled herself deeper into her chair. "If you don't mind, I'm staying behind. You said these rooms are safe, Genya?"

"Yes. We'll call upon you should you be needed, milady."

"Hey, how come she gets to stay here and I get to go be soaked in monster guts?"

"Because Death asked for you."

"Wait- wait now. Who's side are you fucking on?"

"Yours. It is in our best interests to confront Death and know his plans."

"Doesn't sound like you're on my side." Soma crossed his arms and looked away.

"You're going to have to trust me, Soma."

"You know, historically speaking, trusting you usually ends up with me fighting monsters and almost getting killed."

He gave a slight laugh. "I suppose you're right. But a necessity is still such, and I must ask again that you accompany me."

"Do I get anything in return?"

"Anything you want." Almost immediately he regretted his words. The smile that caught across Soma's face was almost menacing, and a little mean.

"Take me out to dinner. When we get out of here, I mean."

"I believe I told you anything." He stepped out into the library. The room was lit warm by candles, there was a woman sitting in a chair. Long pale hair, her green dress clung to her body, she held herself tight and shook with tears. He was someone else and wanted nothing more than to go to her, hold her close and promise her everything. Taken by the image, he stepped forward, reached out to her. Wondered what year it was, where he was, all that mattered was he could go back and correct his mistakes. Tell her everything she had ever asked and run away from what his life had become. The impossibility of it didn't matter in the face of being offered a second chance.

"Genya!"

The name was from so much later, snapped him from the reverie and showed the shape shifter for what it was. Not quite a succubus, but seductive nonetheless. A creature he had never seen in the castle before, one he knew how to fight only in theory. Soma was backed against the wall, menaced by this demon thing, his eyes rolled back, still in the illusion and calling out for him. He wondered what Soma saw that made him want his presence. Drew his sword, summoned the familiar and threw the demon off. He saw Soma crumple out of the corner of his eye, distracted the demon away from him, hacked away at his swinging arms. He used his own smallness, his own agility to his advantage, jumped up onto the bookshelves, then to the demon's shoulders, plunged the sword into it deep, warm blood splattering across his face. The thing reeled, gripped at him with huge hands and threw him across the library hall. He blacked out for a moment.

"Why, Alucard, why do you hurt me?" Her face dripped with blood from where his sword had sunk deep into flesh, matted her hair. She reached out and brought her hand against his face, it was sticky with her blood, or his, he couldn't tell. The world wavered around him, he barely saw Soma stand, grab his weapon. Wondered if Soma knew what he saw.


	7. Chapter 7

Dear Internet: Sorry this took so long. Yeah, that's about it. I love everyone who reviews and everyone who story alerts and favorites but, let's be honest, the reviewers get special treatment. Now to get on with it.

If that would change his actions. Soma buried his broadsword in the creature and again it was a monster, it wasn't her, and he could kill it. The blood he tasted when the monster finally fell might have once been human, and that frightened him more than anything else.

Soma searched the corpse for spoils. "Genya?"

"Hmm?" He couldn't bring himself to approach the creature, instead, pocketed a candle that had burned in his illusion, strangely sat, still warm, on the table.

"What did you see?"

"Someone I once called love."

Soma laughed. "I can't see you loving someone."

"I have loved before, with everything that I was, I have loved." He didn't turn to look at the boy, didn't want him to see the tears that pooled in the corners of his eyes. Soma didn't need to know about them. He didn't need to know about Maria, encounters bringing the pain fresh to him as though it had not been hundreds of years since. He fooled himself when he thought it might grow dull with time, he hadn't loved since.

"Right," Soma mumbled, put his arm around his shoulder in a gesture of comfort. He stiffened, still painfully unused to touch. Soma let his hand trail down his arm. "You okay to do this?"

"Yes, yes of course." He pulled away. He didn't want to, no, he had to. Brushed himself off, ran both gloved hands through his hair, unused to the feeling of the long, pale mess he had hidden for so long. He cursed himself for still being shaken by the creature that had taken her form. Took his anger out on an orb of ectoplasm that dared to get in his way as they left the library. Ran, only to collapse in a saferoom and hold himself.

Soma sat across from him, reached out to push a hand through his hair. "Genya, something's wrong."

"This place brings forth memories. Seeing," he wouldn't tell him, "seeing what I saw brought back memories. "My love once walked this castle as we do now."

"She was a monster?"

"No, painfully human. She came here to save someone."

"Oh." Soma pushed himself to sit beside him, try and find his face with piercing pale eyes. "Is that why you're on our side now?"

He wanted to laugh, "I was on your side, as you word it, long before that."

Soma put one arm around him, "I'm sorry for whatever it was you saw."

"So am I."

"Y'wanna' know what I saw?" Soma didn't move his arm.

"I believe I may." For once, he watched the boy's face, his pale eyes.

"I saw you, and you wanted me. Not like in an 'oh yes, take me, take me' sort of way, but in a quiet way, the way, I guess, you'd want someone."

"Want?"

"Like sex, Jesus, how long have you been wherever you are?"

"I am sorry I do not upkeep with the language of the times, Soma."

"Yeah, whatever, it's kinda' hot anyways." Soma mumbled, he probably thought he went unheard. What he didn't know was the preternatural hearing of the damned.

"You… Want me?" He looked up, to find Soma trying not to look at him. He moved a gloved hand through Soma's hair. "No one has wanted this in more than a hundred years."

"Obviously you haven't seen the way Yoko looks at you." Soma snorted.

"A girlish crush, nothing more." He let his hand fall, pushed to his feet. "We waste time here, time which may be of the essence." Swept out of the room and back into the fray. Creatures of horror he didn't rightly acknowledge fell to his blade, he lept from outcropping to staircase, through a broken elevator shaft, holding out his hand to help Soma as he tried to follow someone who knew this castle and it's mutations too well. He hoped the throne room would lend something to the castle's reappearance. And he hoped against hope that something was not the man who had raised him. The creature he couldn't bring himself to hate, even after all the man had done. Because, really, he had never turned a harsh hand against his own son, once called him 'the only thing he had left'.

He watched Soma search the room outside the throne chamber, hit walls in a futile attempt to find something useful.

"There's nothing here."

"Trying never hurt. What's on the other side of the door?"

"For that I do not have a good answer."

"Then open it."

He had no good reason not too. He had a million reasons, each better than the last, to never touch that door, leave the castle and never return.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Yes, it took forever. Sorry. Hope the wait was worth it.

He looked to Soma almost plaintively. "Yes. Yes of course." His hand hesitated over the door, shoved it brutally open.

Soma ran through, crashing into the room with his sword drawn. Though empty, he could sense the aura of those past, and Soma sunk into the chair in a familiar position, head rested on his hand, strong smirk painting his features surprisingly similar, and yet all too different. He thought there was a chance he liked Soma's more. Less malicious, in its own way. The intent was still there.

"They've just been here."

"Left something behind, too."

"What?" He shook his head and reassessed Soma's position. So similar to the others he had found in that seat.

"They left you behind," A sickeningly sweet voice, rich, much lower than the childlike Soma. He searched for anything left behind of the boy he had known. "All the demons ran away and left their little half-breed behind, all for me." What once had been Soma ran his hands through his hair, face just this close to his. Breath against his cheek. "A little toy for the new master of the castle."

His blood ran cold, he couldn't move. "This isn't you."

"It is now." His lips brushed along his cheek, cold, contrasting with Soma's warm breath. "This is what the Demons need me to be."

The kiss made him ill. "Fight it Soma."

"And you can take your father's power, we can rule this place."

"You do not want this." His voice was low, slowly moved his hand towards a weapon. Soma grabbed the hand and forced him against the wall, their bodies touched at every point and he didn't want to mind, but he did, not this way. The hot breath on his ear, the warmth radiating down his body, this power that surged through Soma could be erotic, so much so he would want to die for it, but he was trapped. Arousal was replaced with pain shooting down his wrists where he was trapped, A hand moved through his hair, clenched his fist in the blond strands and pulled his head back.

"Is it Genya, or Alucard? Who is it you want to be?" He stood above him, let his lips trail over his face, heated, moving his body against him. "Whose name should I taunt you with when you're crying for me?"

He pushed into Soma, knocking him back and drawing his sword in one smooth motion,pushing it into his throat. "Who has you?" A low growl, an animal form he had not taken in years in this voice. "When I have torn you from this body there will not be enough of you left for another try."

"I look forward to this fight." Soma stood, slowly, watching his eyes the whole time. He drew the real Soma's broadsword and leveled it against his weapon. They ran the blades against each other, a test of strength, of fear in the other's eyes. Soma's eyes had grown dark, red lines running to the iris, bloodlust in his breath. He lashed out hard against the half-blood, driving him to the wall, pinning him with his blade.

His transformative powers brought back to the forefront of his mind, he let his body evaporate with the air, nothing more than a cloud of mist to Soma, hardly connected to himself, he had to reform immediately or lose himself in the process. Passed through Soma, or what was left of him, and formed again, cutting away at his back, two good hits before he turned, the superior strength of the broadsword knocking him back, he skidded to his knees and looked at what had once been a boy, wandering the castle, in over his head. This was not that child, and his magics were out of practice, but he could find the spirit that had taken the boy who, so recently, admitted his desires to him. He pushed himself to his feet, summoned all the power he had to find this thing. His mouth was dry, head spinning with the energy that had flooded the room. It pushed his jacket, flowing around him like something alive, pushing through and over his body, raising him even from the ground. And he saw what surrounded Soma, what controlled him, sickening and black, pressing into his chest and moving him like a puppet on strings. He couldn't cut the strings without killing Soma. And he dragged him to this room. Knowing Soma had not wanted to enter this place, he had made him take the long trek to the throne room only to see this happen. He pushed Soma's body into the wall, grabbed at the thing around the boy. He tried to fight off the hands, grabbing at what had cornered him, but the boy slumped, fell into his arms. He tangled his arms around the pale creature, stroked his hand through the white hair, whispered in his ear he thought perhaps then he would be safe, he had taken away the thing what had made him.


	9. Chapter 9

Dear Internet- Right, so, writer's block. It seems as soon as I graduated university all my desire to to anything besides bake and sleep was gone. I am sorry. I think I got my groove back, though. Lets hope. Harass me if I don't post again in the month of February.

Gentle, he moved Soma to the wall, draped the cloak over him.

"Rest, Soma, you should need it," He let his lips brush over Soma's cheek, "if they can take you so easy, we might already have lost." He didn't have the mind to wonder where the thing had gone after it gave up so easy on Soma. The room was painfully cold, but they were alone. He layered healing charms over the boy, protections and cures and defenses, sat with his slow breathing. He didn't want to risk moving Soma, he didn't want to know who he would wake to. There was nothing carried around him, but it could have sunk inside to take his heart.

The castle was always hard, hadn't always been. He supposed that had more to do with his change in allegiances than a change in the castle. He remembered vividly the way the monsters used to treat him, they were friends, they were allies, they took care of him when his father could not. He had been small, lost, but he had been happy. Happy enough, with no mother to rock him to sleep as she once had, happy enough, if not for the nightmares. A fear of fire had been instilled in him until he was grown enough to know better. To fear the humans, the ones who carried the fire. And then to fear the monsters that had raised him, if fear was even the right word. He curled up against Soma, so his cloak covered them both, against the wall beside his father's throne, a place he used to love to sleep, the kind of place he knew he would be found and carried back to his bed, back before it all went wrong.

He had taken his mother's last words to mind, not to hate the humans, but to pity them, their lot was hard enough without his ire. And when he was very small, the Demons and monsters had found it sweet, his wide eyed innocence and trepidation, his resistance to hate. They had coddled him and treated him like a prince, loved him as they loved their own. His father had wanted him to be a prince, and to grow into the hate he had so nurtured, the small inklings of rage left over from witnessing what the humans would do to his mother, just for loving the way she had. What no one had ever believed was that his father was capable of love, and his mother had loved in return, and, when he had been small, he was the recipient of his parent's affections. Had they spared Lisa, likely he would have lived a blessed life, prince of a land of chaos he didn't properly know how to control. He never would have hated, then again, neither would have his father. He never would have inherited the castle, his father could never die. Subservient, a prince among kings, worshiped but never allowed to live outside the shadow.

He'd have to move them eventually. Nothing had been in that throne room but old spirits, memories and stranger things. Perhaps below, his mind drifted, perhaps the underground would hold something more useful than this. It would have to wait until Soma woke.

He dreamt his mother calling him home.

His shoulder shook, head drifting against the wall. "Genya. Hey, Genya. Mornin' sunshine."

"Oh. You're awake."  
"Yeah. What're you doing napping in the throne room."

"You were-"

"I was what?"

"Oh. Nothing. Glad to see you well, is all." He gathered his wits about him and stood, listening to the cold stone walls whisper with monsters wandering just outside.

"Well, where to from here?" Soma stretched, heaving his weapon onto his back and grinning, cocky, something of the teenager he had once played guide to.

"Underground. We have to find what made the castle show itself."

"Obviously." Soma kicked the door down, taking the head off armor, nothing inside there were still dozens of them, animate and bloodthirsty for the pair. He jumped past Soma and took them down, a smile back to the younger.

"Shall we?"

"You're an ass." The smile was returned.

It was a game to them to descend once again to the library, report back to Yoko. On his mind still, past the taunting and their game, who could kill more creatures against them, he wanted to know what had taken Soma. He needed to consult Yoko on it, even for reassurance that he had taken it out of the picture.

"Thirty-two!" Soma called back.

"Forty." His snide reply.

"Loser has to buy drinks when we go out."

"Save your money, then, Soma." He realized that he had missed having a companion in this place. Saving the mortals was well and good, but the companionship was something essentially human he denied himself.


End file.
